Howdy, pardners! I've back on the saddle to discuss a three-day smashfest in Houston, Texas that's been hyped six says from Sunday. That's right, it's none other than...

Hey, AiB! How are you all on this fine day? This is lightlanayru (Trish) here, but not as your Head of Ladder Content. I am here as a fellow member of the Pokémon community with a couple of awesome announcements! You have read the title of this article, and now... let the hype unveil itself!

After many weeks of planning and preparation, I am proud to announce the grand opening of the official AiB Pokémon League for the 5th Generation!

There have been some changes for this Pokémon League as compared to the 4th generation. Not to worry, though! Your objective to conquer the league remains the same, and your battles can be done either through your DS (if you have Black or White) or Pokémon Online (download the simulator here). There will be badges and cards given out to those who have proven themselves victorious over the Champion. The rules of the league, as well as more in-depth information are provided in the official group. So, if you are up for a rigorous challenge, join the AiB 5th Gen Pokémon League group now!

In addition to the grand opening of the 5th Gen Pokémon League... haha, you do realize what today is, yes? Indeed, today is the official release date of Pokémon Black & White! Well actually, today is Europe's release date for the 5th generation installments on the DS, but do not fret! I trust that the Americans can survive 48 hours or less of waiting for Pokémon Black & White to come out. They come out this weekend, after all. Also, in case you were probably unaware, there is still a mall tour going on (until March 20th) throughout the U.S. for the promotion of these games, and I do highly recommend going to one of these if you can't wait to try them out. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, and I was lucky enough to go! You can check out my blog for more info on the Pokémon Black & White mall tour!

Anyway, with the English versions of Black and White coming out, you will be embarking on a journey to the Unova region! New features have also been added into these games, such as having triple or rotation battles, as well as gaining access to the Global Link to obtain the Dream World abilities for your Pokémon! There are over 150 new Pokémon in the 5th generation to look out for, and of course, you will be conquering the gyms and the Pokémon League while you encounter some trouble on the way! You will be traveling with a traditional starter Pokémon, and you have a choice of choosing between Snivy (the grass-type), Tepig (the fire-type), and Oshawott (the water-type). If you are one of those indecisive trainers who can't decide on what starter to choose, we have an in-game analysis for each of the starters in their final-evolution forms, respectively written by lightlanayru, Mangporeyawn and Midnite.

Serperior is, indeed, the royal snake of the starters. While it lacks a secondary type, it has a decent base speed of 113 and its other base stats are well-rounded. Sadly, Serperior's movepool is a little poor (especially outside of its Dream World ability, Perversity), but it still has some useful moves. In its base evolution form, Snivy learns Leaf Tornado at level 16 before it evolves into Servine at level 17, which is a pretty decent attacking move to use (with a chance of lowering the target's accuracy) throughout the beginning/middle of the game. Your best attacking moves for STAB are Leaf Blade and Leaf Storm / Solarbeam, but it depends on your preference of either attacking physically or specially. Energy Ball is also a good attacking move (with an added small chance of lowering the target's special defense), and Serperior learns this through TMs. To take advantage of Serperior's defenses, Leech Seed is definitely a must if you prefer to heal some HP each turn, and it also learns Giga Drain to heal itself more effectively. Serperior can also use Toxic for status-inflicting purposes, but it has its downsides against steel and poison-types, as they can resist grass and poison type attacks. Outside of STAB, its possible useful move (besides Return) is Dragon Tail, which is also learned through TMs. When using Dragon Tail, not only does it inflict damage, but the target is forced back in its pokeball and the trainer is forced to send out a different random pokemon in his/her party. In addition, this is Serperior's only attacking move that can take care of dragon-types.

By the end of the game, Serperior's possible best moveset is this:
Sunny Day / Double Team / Growth / Coil
Leech Seed / Giga Drain / Wrap
Leaf Blade / Dragon Tail / Return / Wrap
Grass Knot / Energy Ball / Solarbeam / Leaf Storm

With Serperior's shallow movepool and its despise towards fire types, it does enjoy some company with water types. Luckily, you should be able to obtain the water monkey, Panpour, early in the game. Sadly, there are not that much water-types to see after Panpour, though unless you have obtained Surf, you would be able to encounter Alomomola, Frillish, and Jellicent on the seas. Otherwise, you can have a ground type aid with Serperior, such as obtaining a Drilbur, Sandile, or Golett, and evolve them all the way into Excadrill, Krookodile, or Golurk respectively.

If you prefer to choose a different starter, there are quite a few grass-type Pokemon to note. You have Cottonee (in Black) and Petlil (in White) to go after. Sewaddle is also a notable grass type, as it can evolve all the way into a Leavanny, which has decent base attack and speed stats. Then, there is Deerling and Sawsbuck you can catch, as they have access to fighting-type moves, Megahorn, and Wild Bolt for type coverage. Of course, you also have access to Ferroseed and Ferrothorn for annoyance purposes.

Emboar is the definition of big and bad...no, not literally. Emboar is the strongest of the three starters boasting both a 123 base attack and a 100 base special attack, but there's a catch, a 65 base speed leaves it moving second in battle to many Pokemon. Luckily, Tepig learns a move at level 15 that cures the speed problem. Flame Charge is a physical Fire-type move that always increases your Pokemon's speed when used, so teaching it to Tepig will be worthwhile. Another thing that makes Emboar useful is its secondary Fighting-type, which it gets after Tepig evolves into Pignite. Many Pokemon you'll encounter throughout the game have weaknesses to Fighting-type moves. Only downside is that it only learns Arm Thrust through leveling, a 15 base power multi-hit attack. Prepare to rely on TMs to give it some better Fighting-type moves. Speaking of TMs, Emboar is one of, if not the only, Fire-Type Pokemon to learn a Water-Type move. It is capable of learning Scald through TM, which is fairly strong, and has a chance to burn. It also learns Wild Charge, which is a pretty powerful Electric-type move, though you should be careful when using it since it deals recoil damage.

Here's a few move sets you can use on Emboar near the end of the game to take full use of his skills:

Flame Charge/Wild Charge/Scald/Brick Break
Flare Blitz/Head Smash/Earthquake/Hammer Arm
Heat Crash/Hammer Arm/Overheat
Sunny Day/Solarbeam/Fire Blast

As a Fire-type, Emboar really hates Water-types. A simple remedy to this is to get the Grass-type Pokemon, Pansage, which you can get pretty easily and pretty early in the game. If you miss Pansage, you always have the chance to pick up either a Cottonee or a Petilil, which are version exclusive Grass-type Pokemon. Cottonee for Black and Petilil for White. Also, if you'd rather have the other exclusive Grass-type Pokemon, there's an in-game trade that'll give you the exclusive from the game opposite of yours. A good Dark-type like Purrloin can be obtained pretty early in the game to counter Psychic-type Pokemon trying to hit Emboar for super effective damage.

If you don't choose Emboar as your starter, it's not too hard to find a different Fire-type, unlike how Diamond and Pearl only had one Fir-type outside of the Chimchar evolutionary line before the National Pokedex. Darumaka is an excellent Fire-type available a little before halfway through the game. Not only is its evolution stronger that Emboar, but it's faster as well, and it learns nearly all of the same moves Emboar does. There are a few other Fire-type Pokemon available, but none really stand out in non-competitive environments. Chandelure is a pretty cool Fire/Ghost-type Pokemon with 145 base special attack, but not only does its first evolution take place at level 41, you also need to obtain a Dusk Stone to fully evolve it.

Samurott is well-rounded. It has nice attacking stats and reasonable bulk, but it's only slightly faster than Emboar. Oshawott does a decent job early on. However, by the time it evolves into Dewott, it starts to fall behind, as it doesn't gain many good non-water moves outside of Fury Cutter and Revenge, making it harder to use. When it evolves into Samurott, it's... well, not exactly showtime yet. It really only gains Slash ad Aqua Tail by level. However, as you gain more TMs, you'll find them great asset for Samurott. Gaining the TMs for Ice Beam/Blizzard, Grass Knot, Scald, X-Scissor, and Dragon Tail help a lot. If you have a spare Heart Scale, you can also teach it Megahorn from the move relearner!

By end-game, the best moveset for Samurott is around the lines of:

Surf/Scald/Aqua Tail/Waterfall
Ice Beam/Grass Knot
Megahorn/Slash/Dragon Tail
Revenge/Slash/Dragon Tail

Samurott enjoys the company of a fire type to handle Grass types. You're given Pansear early. Darumaka/Darumantan also has great synergy if you skipped Pansear. A Grass type in Lilligant, Sawsbuck, or Maractus, or a Ground type in Krookodile, Excadrill, or Golurk will also help in the long-run, as they handle electric attacks.

If you don't plan on starting with Samurott, there aren't that many other notable water type in Unova. If you started with Snivy, you get Panpour. If you started with Tepig, there's Carracosta, Jelicent, and Seismitoad to consider. I would like to note that Carracosta has access to Shell Smash at a relatively early level of 40, which is a great offensive asset.



I believe that's about all I have for you. Are you ready for another adventure in the Pokémon world? This is your time now! I await to see what you've all got! Until next time, see ya~ :]

Hello everyone, Black Mother here bringing you the 10th Pokémon Update and Analysis. In this update, we have tournament updates and placings, analyses written by Raysa, Black Daughter and Black Mother, Black Father's "Basics of Competitive Pokémon", and the new 5th generation Power Rankings!
 
Upcoming Tournaments!
This week, Seiya and Neiko will be hosting "Tasting Time 4!". This will be a standard OU Gen 5 tournament, and will take place on Saturday, March 5th, 2011. It will be held at Fats' "Shuttle Loop" server on Pokémon-Online. Everyone will be playing on the "DreamWorld" tier. I encourage everyone to show up! Last tournament, we had the highest participation and amount of people in the server. More details will be listed here:
http://allisbrawl.com/ttournament.aspx?id=11557
 
Pokémon Tournament Placings
This update will include results from Neiko's "USU: Sanyou City", along with the mini Triples tournament that was held afterwards.
 
USU: Sanyou City
*DreamWorld 1v1*
1. Hawkstar
2. Mangporeyawn
3. Avel-L6665
4. jarvitz
5. Black Father / Smash-Kun
 
*Triples*
1. Stunt
2. jarvitz
3. Black Father
4. Afiari
5. Black Daughter / Ibl!s
 
Congratulations to Hawkstar and Stunt, for winning each event!
During this tournament, the Shuttle Loop server peaked at 42 people online!
(although this picture shows 35 people, there were 42 people earlier)

 
Aside from the results, Chimpakt has been starting to record grand finals of Pokémon tournaments hosted on AiB, and I thank him for volunteering to do so. As of now, he has recorded the finals of USU: Karakusa Town (Black Mother / Arban vs. Raysa), and USU: Sanyou City (Mangporeyawn vs. Hawkstar)
 
USU: Karakusa Town (Black Mother vs. Raysa) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5CTF9XNdxc

USU: Sanyou City (Mangporeyawn vs. Hawkstar) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=souNlCwTU50
 
Pokémon Analysis

In this edition, we will have Raysa's analysis on his Pokémon he has used successfully from his past experiences, Manectric, Black Daughter (Pizza) with his Jirachi analysis, and Black Mother (Arban) with his Dugtrio analysis.

 

Manectric @ Choice Specs/Balloon
Trait: Lightningrod
EVs: 4 HP / 252 SpA / 252 Spe
Timid Nature (+Spe, -Atk)
~Thunderbolt
~Overheat/Flamethrower
~Hidden Power Ice
~Switcheroo
 
"Manectric, formerly outclassed by the likes of Jolteon and Zapdos, finds a niche in the new 5th gen metagame. Few walls can safely switch in to it, as Thunderbolt hits Burungeru, Overheat roasts Nattorei, and Switcheroo screws over most other walls, as well as some greedy, stat-boosting sweepers. Hidden Power Ice is a coverage move, and hits many sand threats hard. The EVs and Timid nature ensure that Manectric hits fast and deals a lot of damage. The recent Lightningrod buff makes Manectric even more viable (grants one stage Special Attack boost when hit by an electric move, as well as granting it an electric immunity), making it a great partner with Gyarados, who is also immune to Manectric's ground weakness.
 
As far as counters go, Dugtrio is probably the best. Arena Trap prevents Manectric from switching while it kills it with STAB Earthquake. Tyranitar is another good counter, as it does not fear Manectric's attacks too much and can set up on it or kill it. Many powerful scarfed pokes can also kill it with relative ease, as Manectric has unimpressive defenses. Garchomp and Gliscor can kill Manectric if Sand Veil intervenes. There are numerous hazards to this and your team if you mispredict, so choose your move wisely. If you do not trust your predictions, a Balloon is also a viable item on this set, as Manectric can still rob pokes of their items without fear of repercussions after its Balloon is popped and can also kill most of the ground-type threats listed above while it is immune to Earthquake. Be sure you have checks to these threats when considering Manectric for your team."
 

Jirachi @ Leftovers
Trait: Serene Grace
EVs: 252 HP / 144 SAtk / 112 Spd
Modest Nature (+SAtk, -Atk)
- Substitute
- Calm Mind
- Thunder
- Psychic/Psycho Shock/Hidden Power Ice/Water Pulse/Wish
 
"Now, I know what you're thinking. "Why run Calm Mind Jirachi when you can just use Rankurusu? Have you lost your mind, or do you enjoy using outclassed things for the hell of it?" I will tell you, this is probably the best set I have ever used, becuase it's so effective at what it does, with the right support. 252 HP puts Jirachi right at 404 HP, meaning that I get four possible Substitutes, Seismic Toss and Night Shade fail to break, and this gets me more chances to Calm Mind. Calm Mind is a given, and is the crux of this set. 100/100/100 Defenses are bulky already, and with the HP investment after one or two Calm Minds Jirachi isn't going down from any Special Attacks.
 
Thunder gets 100 Accuracy in Rain, although 70 Accuracy out of it is still pretty usable, especially since Jirachi is bulky enough to live most things, even better after a Sub. Thunder also has a 60% chance of Paralysis with Serene Grace, which is the best part about this set. That's something Rankurusu can't do.
 
Now comes to the fourth move. There are a variety of options that could potentially go here, each with it's pros and cons.
 
-Psychic is the option I particularly prefer, because Fighting is such a common type this Gen. With this, you have a tougher time getting around Chansey and Blissey however. It gets STAB, which is nice.
-Psycho Shock is also an option, I ran this originally. However, it was a pain getting around Bulk Upers like Rooboshin, who you can't even hit with Thunder because of the fear of Guts. Hippowdon was also a pain to get around, and if you're using this on a Rain team, beating Sand is a must. It gets STAB as well.
-Hidden Power Ice is usable if you want that near perfect coverage, however, it's not recommended on sets like this because if you're boosting chances are you'd hit whatever you'd get with Boltbeam hard enough.
-Water Pulse is cool if you're looking for that parafusion mix.
-Wish helps you live longer, but you sacrifice coverage, and Ground is everywhere with Sandstorm. I suppose you could run this set with Wish and Psychic outside of Rain, though.
 
As for supporting this set, Politoed is a must because of the Rain. Something that can switch in to take Physical Ground attacks is good as well, things like Zapdos and Nattorei can do this no problem. Toxic Spikes makes dealing with Chansey and Blissey easier, so those are a viable option too.
All in all, this is an amazing set that I'd recommend to anyone who wants to use a Rain team."
 
 

Dugtrio @ Choice Band
Trait: Arena Trap
EVs: 252 Atk / 252 Spe / 4 HP
Adamant / Jolly Nature (+Atk/+Spe, -SpA)
- Earthquake
- Stone Edge
- Sucker Punch
- Aerial Ace / Return
 
"In today's metagame, Dugtrio isn't seen much around, as there are now more powerful sweepers than it's own. This is where I'm bringing it back, as it is still extremely useful mainly because of it's Arena Trap ability, which traps all Pokémon that don't have the Levitate ability, or isn't a flying type. But after my success in using it in my Sun team, I discovered Dugtrio actually kills many threats like Tyranitar, Shanderaa, or even Latios. Sucker Punch is a priority move that OHKO's Shanderaa after a Stealth Rock (and traps it in). It can also kill Latios though sadly, it cannot trap it due to it's Levitate ability. Earthquake OHKO's non-defensive Tyranitars, leaving them with no Sandstorm. Baiting a Tyranitar works best with a Pokemon having a sleep-inducing move that is weak to his moves. A perfect example is Gengar, where you use Hypnosis on them while they try to Pursuit, and you then go to Dugtrio to trap and kill the Tyranitar with Earthquake. Stone Edge is for the flying types that decide to stay in, as odd as that sounds. You will end up using Earthquake and Sucker Punch most of the time, but Stone Edge will have its times. Aerial Ace kills Breloom, although this was just a filler considering Breloom will OHKO Dugtrio with Mach Punch anyways. Return is also just a filler, simply because Dugtrio's movepool isn't that great. Return any other Pokémon for a base power of 102.
 
If you are using the Adamant nature, Dugtrio reaches an attack of 426, if it's holding Choice Band. Dugtrio's speed will be at 339. Personally, I use Adamant nature mainly because the Pokemon that are threats to my team are generally slow, and the power is needed more than the Speed. Jolly nature reaches an attack of 389, along with a speed of 372. So honestly, the decision on Adamant or Jolly is up to you, depending on what your team needs. The major downside of Dugtrio is that he has terrible defenses, and will get killed by anything that can outspeed it, or if it has a priority move, so Dugtrio may require defensive team members to keep it up and going. A great partner would be Gyarados, who has good bulk along with Intimidate, and can take the Water and Grass attacks aimed at Dugtrio. Gyarados also can take on most of the priority moves with Intimidate such as ExtremeSpeed, Mach Punch, or Sucker Punch pretty well. Overall, Dugtrio is pretty much a glass cannon that comes with an amazing ability, and can screw over many Pokémon because of his rarity in today's metagame."

 
Next, we will show tip #3 of Black Father's "Basics to Competitive Pokémon".
 
#3 How do I know if a Pokémon is good competitively?
Looking at the stats and typing is a good start, but what is really important is what moves it learns, which can be the difference between a Pokémon being good and a Pokémon being bad. A perfect example of the movepool making a Pokémon good is smeargle, whose base 55/20/35/20/45/75 (in order of hp, attack, defense, special attack, special defense, and finally, speed) seems really bad, and yet it's an extremely good Pokémon. This is because it learns every move in the game. An example of a Pokémon with good stats but a terrible movepool is Flareon. Its base 65/130/60/95/110/65 seem solid for a physical sweeper with some nice special defense, but its physical movepool is terrible, with its strongest stab move being Fire Fang, a 65 base power / 95 accuracy move, and its only coverage moves being Bite (a 60 base power dark move), Return (a 102 base power normal move, which seems good, but normal has common resistances, like steel and rock), Iron Tail (a 100 base power move...with 75 accuracy and bad offensive typing), and Superpower (a 120 base power / 100 accuracy fighting-type move, which is actually good; sadly, it has its drawbacks of lowering your attack/defense one stage), but it has no good physical moves other than this. So look for all three things: stats, typing, and movepool. Ability can also be important, but it has to either be really good or really bad to make much of a difference. Slaking (base 150/160/100/95/65/100) having Truant (only being able to attack every other turn) makes it bad because you give your opponent a free turn of set up, and Ditto (base 48/48/48/48/48/48) having eccentric (which now automatically transforms into the opposing pokemon, provided that it's not a Ditto or behind a substitute) makes it an extremely good revenge killer (a pokemon who kills the pokemon who killed one of your pokemon), because when running with choice scarf, you will have the same Pokémon, only it will be faster (it copies all boosts, too). Look at all of these factors before you decide, and if you're not sure if something's good, either try it out or ask someone who knows the metagame.
 
 
AiB 5th Generation Pokémon PR
For those of you who don't know already, Black Daughter will be starting up a new PR for AiB for 5th Generation. I have deleted the old one for Gen 4, as the updates were rarely occurring. However, Black Daughter decided not to use my old ranking system simply because if you didn't start in time, it was extremely hard to get on it, and the overall process wasn't effective. This new ranking system will have a panel currently consisting of Black Daughter, Black Father, Hawkstar, and I. After every tournament and how matches are generally played when there isn't a tournament, the panelists will review each player and give them their rank. This way, if there is a new player who is good (Hawkstar, for example), he will be able to be put on the rankings. So after looking at past Gen 5 tournament results, and a lengthy discussion, these are the rankings as of now:


 
That concludes this edition of Pokémon Updates and Analysis. Thanks to Raysa, Black Daughter, and Black Mother for their submissions to this update. Don't forget to show up at Seiya and Neiko's tournament this Saturday, and if you would like to submit an analysis of your own on a Pokemon, you may submit one by sending me a PM.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the game that's way better than the lottery! (Maybe not in difficulty, but hey...your odds of winning sure are greater!) Who will the user be this time, you ask? A better question is...who was that user last time? Let's find out!

Last edition's results: The featured fellow in WTU #20 was none other than KikiRukata! She joined the site on December 30, 2009, mains Toon Link and Daisy in their respected games, and enjoys reading, writing, and roleplaying in her spare time. She also likes piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, but that's a different story. Ivy73, Raptorking2000, and R.F.G were the succesful newcomers, and Raffi-X and Blue Yoshi were the successful oldcomers. Congrats to all, and please do continue to participate! (It puts bread on the table. ) By the way, if you wish to see the results of the contest the day after, check this group out!

Rules:
1. I will give you all an interesting fact about a particular user. If you are the user I am describing, please keep quiet about it and do not reveal yourself. Failure to comply will result in the loss of your WTU Featured User badge.
2. In addition to a fact, clues will be given to help you search the myriad users of AiB for the right one. Don’t stop until you are absolutely sure you have the right user and he or she matches the clues given, because you only get one shot at this.
3. To make sure you are taking the time to check your guess, I will give you a few questions to answer about this user. Every answer will be found somewhere on his or her profile (About Me, blogs, videos, etc.) If one answer is incorrect, then your whole guess will be counted wrong, so make sure you are absolutely certain of what you typed. (P.S. If you can't find the answers or have to PM the person you're looking at for an answer, you're doing it wrong.)
4. When you are ready to give the name and answers, do not post as a comment. You must send a private message, or your submission will be void. Also, don’t give me a link to his or her profile unless you have the name and the answers to the questions to go with it. Putting just a link in your message will count as an incomplete (and therefore wrong) answer.
5. Everyone has until midnight tonight (PST) to message me. Any answer sent in after that will not be counted.
6. The first five that send the correct username get the WTU Winner badge! Keep in mind, however, that some veterans may come back to compete. Work fast, but don’t give up!

One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and four to...GOOOOOOOOO!

This user is a technology master. For starters, _____ likes robots and has built a plethora out of LEGOS, motors, PVC pipes, etc. Competitions are held every year that involve teams creating bots and having them complete certain objectives before the other succeeds, and this user typically excels in each. (Maybe if I'm really nice, ______ will make something for me. God knows I could use a servant to complete tasks I'm too lazy to do!) The love for all things cybernetic goes way beyond "simple" toys, however. ______ is pretty good at Java and C++, and was once part of a team that created Sea Percher models that would help solve numerous environmental issues (i.e oil spills). Basically, this user is my kind of...well, user, and I fully support ______ technological endeavors. Bullies and haters beware, because this user could become the next Bill Gates and take over the world!

In addition to the fact above, this user...
-is in the group All I Want Is A Beach Ball.
-has a "t" in the username or location.
-joined the site in Winter 2009.
-mains a D tier character, according to the Official BBR Tier List v5.

And the questions you need to answer are as follows:
1. When exactly did this user join the site?
2. Who is the main described above?
3. How many stages did this user make?

So tell me…WHO’S THAT USER?! Good luck to all, use your time wisely, and pay attention to the clues/questions! >;D

By the way, if you want to try to be featured in an article of “Who’s That User?”, just send me a PM with a cool, unique thing about yourself that possibly no one knows about you. However, just make sure this thing can’t be found anywhere on your profile (About Me, videos, blogs, tournaments, etc.) There’s no guarantee that you’ll be chosen, but if the random name picker I’ll use selects your name, you shall receive the WTU Featured User badge (as long as you don’t say anything to the other users)! So what are you waiting for? Send in for play, and maybe get featured one day! ^^ (Note: those that already sent in something do not need to resend.)

*switches in* Hmmm? Oh hey there, AiB! Welcome to the 4th ladder update of the winter season! How are things going on in the ladder? We have reached way past the halfway point through the season, and I hope you ladder players are doing well as you try to storm for the top! Have there been interesting changes, or not much at all? We will just have to see what's in store for today. Just to keep this intro nice and short, let's move on to the rankings!

(No ladder replays have been sent to us for this update, but not to worry, submissions are still open! If you guys have replays of your best ladder matches you'd like to share and have it featured on here for the ladder updates, feel free to send me or Mocha any via PMs! Depending on how much we get, she and/or I will most likely pick a maximum of 2 videos for both singles and doubles to post up in the next update.)

Side-note: These top rankings have been taken at 5:30 am PST on [02/26/11].



Singles:

[01] | [NR] : Agent Salem (27 - 0) → Zero Suit Samus
[02] | [01] : ADHD (165 - 15) → Diddy Kong
[03] | [03] : lorD timeouT (67 - 14) → Peach
[04] | [NR] : Flame (21 - 3) → Snake
[05] | [02] : Atomsk (32 - 3) → King Dedede
[06] | [04] : Raffi-X (79 - 43) → R.O.B.
[07] | [06] : ANTi (45 - 12) → Diddy Kong / Snake / Marth / Random?
[08] | [11] : -DracoBlaze- (65 - 22) → Meta Knight / Snake / King Dedede
[09] | [05] : Zebra (107 - 31) → Wario
[10] | [18] : Waft (50 - 12) → Wario
[11] | [07] : Jules (128 - 41) → Meta Knight / Olimar
[12] | [25] : YoshQ (91 - 38) → Luigi / Meta Knight
[13] | [NR] : FOW (10 - 0) → Meta Knight
[14] | [09] : Zero Heart (133 - 23) → Zero Suit Samus
[15] | [14] : Ramona Flowers (29 - 2) → Meta Knight / Snake / King Dedede
[16] | [NR] : MeroKnight (80 - 22) → Zero Suit Samus / Random?
[17] | [31] : MintyFlesh (18 - 5) → Meta Knight / Marth
[18] | [NR] : Tisiphone (26 - 5) → Mr. Game & Watch
[19] | [10] : Koolaid (57 - 4) → Meta Knight / Snake
[20] | [30] : SlayerZ (31 - 7) → Peach
[21] | [12] : burntsocks (57 - 12) → Pit / Snake / Yoshi
[22] | [20] : M to the Ekos (45 - 26) → Lucas
[23] | [24] : Super Saiyajin (42 - 6) → Meta Knight
[24] | [08] : Mcpeepants (41 - 12) → Wolf
[25] | [15] : Aegis Angel Admiral Pit (78 - 26) → Pit
[26] | [16] : Sinnyboo242 (74 - 16) → Meta Knight / Ice Climbers
[27] | [21] : Alphicans (62 - 40) → Mr. Game & Watch
[28] | [NR] : Tearbear (11 - 3) → Meta Knight / Random?
[29] | [NR] : Phoenix vX (60 - 13) → Sonic
[30] | [22] : judge (79 - 22) → Meta Knight / Random?
[31] | [23] : Dnyce (56 - 13) → Olimar
[32] | [13] : Anuar (49 - 9) → Olimar / Meta Knight / Snake



Doubles:

[01] | [02] : Flame's team [Flame / Loopmaster] (41 - 3) → Meta Knight
[02] | [01] : DLK [FOW / M to the Ekos] (22 - 2) → Ness / Lucas
[03] | [03] : we throw our controllers when we lose [Solid Soul / Jules] (15 - 1) → Snake / Meta Knight
[04] | [04] : Muramasa baby! [Amaterasu Okami / TearxXWolf] (20 - 2) → Snake / ?
[05] | [NR] : Team NY [Vinnie C / ANTi] (5 - 1) → Mr. Game & Watch / Meta Knight
[06] | [05] : BEND OVER CAUSE WE ARE GOING TO **** YOU IN THE *** [Adam Gibson / Bizkit] (22 - 7) → Snake
[07] | [07] : Chinchilla Bros [megafox112 / DatWavyBoyDev] (17 - 6) → Fox / R.O.B.
[08] | [06] : Team Red [SuperMarioMC / SkOaRaAn] (18 - 8) → Mr. Game & Watch / Marth
[09] | [13] : Fiendnation [Bo X7 / 7F0] (16 - 13) → ? / ?
[10] | [NR] : Green Team Reborn [BF-Doogi / joe ST] (11 - 4) → Ness / Meta Knight
[11] | [14] : The Uno of Novaa [Uno_Gelp_Beast / SupaN0vaa] (11 - 3) → ? / ?
[12] | [08] : We both lost to Wolf [Atomsk / MJG] (3 - 0) → Random? / Toon Link?
[13] | [NR] : The Ragnell Legends [-BlazeLeaf- / Shai] (8 - 2) → Ike
[14] | [NR] : Desu Forever!~ o3o [-Randum- / SlayerZ] (4 - 0) → Lucas? / Peach
[15] | [NR] : Just fartin in the dark [Chimpakt / Waft] (5 - 0) → Diddy Kong / Wario
[16] | [15] : we r gud [Super Saiyajin / lorD timeouT] (3 - 0) → Meta Knight / Peach




Singles:

• A Zero Suit Samus user, Agent Salem, currently takes first place with an undefeated streak while ADHD trails behind him by 112 points!
• Newcomer, Phoenix vX, enters today's rankings with the only user representing Sonic. Great job!
• MeroKnight has managed to get back on the top rankings, using a whole plethora of characters besides his main! Keep it up!
• YoshQ seems to be doing very well this time around, as he 'super-jumps' from 25th to 12th with his Luigi (and some Meta Knight).
• These following players have been dropped from the last update's rankings: [17]ChinaLee, [19]So Fatal, [26]Adam Gibson, [27]raytay824, [28]Kimchi, [29]Kain, and [32]Luckay4Lyphe
• Top 5 Players with the Most Wins → ADHD (165), Zero Heart (133), Jules (128), Zebra (107), and YoshQ (91).
• Top 6 Players with the Highest Win % → Agent Salem and FOW tie with a win percentage of 1.000, Ramona Flowers (.935), Koolaid (.934), ADHD (.917), and Atomsk (.914).

Doubles:

• The top 4 of these rankings haven't changed much other than 'Flame's team' and 'DLK' switching positions.
• Teams 'We both lost to Wolf' and 'we r gud' are currently suffering some decay, despite having undefeated streaks. Meanwhile, newcoming teams, 'Desu Forever!~ o3o' and 'Just fartin in the dark' have entered the rankings with undefeated streaks. Nicely done!
• We first have double Snakes, then double Meta Knights, and now, we have a team of double Ikes being represented by a newcoming team, 'The Ragnell Legends'. Whew, this should be interesting.
• These following teams have been dropped from the last update's rankings: [09]-WiFi GoDs-, [10]Team We Don't Lose To Lucas, [11]HATE US, [12]Debom and Flame, and [16]Sunshine Snuggle Brigade~.
• Top 6 Teams with the Most Wins → 'Flame's team' (41), 'DLK' and 'BEND OVER CAUSE WE ARE GOING TO **** YOU IN THE *** ' tie with 22 wins, 'Muramasa baby!' (20), 'Team Red' (18), and 'Fiendnation' (16).

Alright, with the season ending on March 31st, we've got at least about a month before the playoffs come around.We shall see who can make it to the top 64 in singles and top 32 in doubles by then! If you haven't tried out the ladder yet and you feel like proving yourself to be the best, go for it! And as for the decaying players, you have some time to make it up. Keep it up, everyone! Until next time, see ya~ :]

Inui: Tonight I am honored to have the likely best Brawl Samus in the world and one of the best hosts in the Smash community, Xyro, here for an interview.  He is the host of what I think is the most successful tournament series in Smash history, if not more than that.  His HOBO series attracts national level competition consistently and normally has high turn-outs.  He is also the main host of the WHOBO series, which are basically "world" HOBOs since he intends them to be nationals.  The third installment of the WHOBO series is next month and will hopefully be the biggest one yet.

Xyro: WHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Yea man, thanks for taking the time to interview me! I've never had an "Inui interview" before so I'm sure this will be pretty tasty!

Inui: I'd like to ask you about your HOBO series, which you're most known for.  What does HOBO stand for, how many have you hosted, and why have you decided to keep this series running for so long, even after you got married?

Xyro: HOBO stands for Houston's Official Brawl Ordeal. Kinda dumb, but I needed something kinda unique/funny and I think it's worked out pretty good thus far. As of now I have done 30 HOBOs and 3 WHOBOs(as of March 2011). I decided to keep the series going because I realized it's the MAIN reason why my state is so freaking amazing. The last reasons why I keep on going with the HOBO series are because I LOVE running tournaments and the fact that it brings our entire state together. It's kinda like a massive "Smash family" reunion every month.  Oh, and to comment on you talking about me being married and how it will affect my events....it's causing me some issues. I got married this past September and at first I thought it wasn't gonna mess with my HOBOs and Smash stuff but once I got the news that my wife is gonna bust out a mini Xyro(she's supposed to have the kid in July)....all things changed that instant. Being married and having a kid on the way means I gotta grow up and do it pretty quick so I'm like 99% sure this WHOBO will be my last(spoilers!!).  I may still try to hold events but I'm not sure how I can manage a wife/kid/work/school/trolling the Houston thread and running events at the same time.

Inui:  Yeah, I've been to a few of them and both WHOBOs so far and they were pretty amazing.  I hope you can continue to host even with your family to take care of.  Next month, you'll be hosting that third WHOBO you just mentioned.  *Pound* 5 is occurring this month and then we have other big tournaments right after WHOBO 3.  You've got some stiff competition for attendance since not everyone can afford going to everything.  What sets WHOBO 3 apart from the other big tournaments going on in the first half of the year?  Why should people choose WHOBO 3 if they had to choose between all of the big events this winter and spring?

Xyro:  Yea this year is gonna have some killer events(Pound/Genesis/WHOBO/etc.) but what I think sets WHOBO 3 apart from the rest is really two major things. First of all, it's a national tournament that has LOW TIERS(1vs1/2vs2) as a side event. Most other major events do retarded stuff like Gay-, Gay+, BalancedGay or whatever other dumb hacks out there and I dont like those at all so I make it a goal of mine to be different and bring a REAL side event to the table. The second way that WHOBO 3 sets itself apart from the pack is that it's beng held at an anime convention(Anime Matsuri). Yes, it's kinda expensive, but you get a TON of things to do besides Smash: Cosplay, contests, anime showings, art, hot girls(or guys), imported cars, LARPing, Texas Showdown Tournament(SSF4/MvC3/BlazBlu/etc.), and of course the rave at midnite(Firday and Saturday only).  All of this makes WHOBO 3 a unique experience for ANY smasher. Oh and if you are SUPER lucky(or is it UNLUCKY, rofl) you may get to see the legendary WHOBO BEAST!  Here's the link to the AiB page for the event: http://allisbrawl.com/ttournament.aspx?id=10692

Inui: Haha, I've heard a bit about this "WHOBO Beast" and would like you to explain what exactly it is...

Xyro: Oh god NOOOOOO. Please don't make me tell you about that disgustingly deformed MONSTER that haunts the halls of WHOBO!!! Before I continue, I want to make SURE that if ANYBODY is gonna click the links below, you do it by your own CHOICE and I am not responsible for the night terrors you will have from this horrendous animal.  This is the first sighting of the WHOBO beast, it was at WHOBO 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOkGF0gwAfY#t=0m29s  It seems that her need to feed returned because I saw the beast at WHOBO 2 the very next year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyUA-iedpJg#t=1m22s  Based off of the encounters with the WHOBO beast, it seems that she will never stop feeding and that must mean that she will return for WHOBO 3. It kinda makes me happy but at the same time it makes me scared. You know, at any given moment she could pick me up, do some nasty things to me, eat me and all I could do is pray that my death is fast.

Inui:  LOL I think I remember seeing her before...  WHOBO 3 sounds exciting, just like the others.  You're going to host both low tier singles and doubles, and it's no secret that you also main a low tier and have a really good shot at placing high in those since you're widely considered the best Samus.  Why do you main Samus instead of good characters and how well do you think you'll perform in the low tier events this time around?

Xyro:  I main Samus because I really want to prove to people that low tiers CAN be good if played correctly and played by a player who is also good. The problem is....this is BRAWL so there is a limit to how good she and I can be. In low tier teams I'm teaming with the legendary Gnes and he will use Mario. I'm pretty sure we can get top 3 in LT teams if we play our cards right. As for LT singles, I'm not too sure where I will place. Ally(Falcon), Poltergust(Yoshi), Noid(Samus), Espy(Lucas/Zelda), Lee Martin(Mario/others) and many other amazing low tier players will be there so it's gonna be hard to tell the placings. I also think that you(Ganondorf/Mario) and YOSH(Yoshi) will do extremely well in both events as well.

Inui:  Thanks for the vote of confidence.  I'm sure you'll do well and I'll be rooting for you.  I'd like to ask you a two-part advice question that could help some people out.  Do you have any tips for aspiring hosts to help them host successful events, and do you have any advice for low tier mains on how to overcome their disadvantages?

Xyro: The few tips I have(they are basic but they go a long way) as a TO to fellow TOs is to treat your tournament like it's the last event you will ever run and do whatever it takes(within reason) to make your players happy. Make sure ALL areas/cities/regions around you know about  your event. Pull out ALL the stops: livestream/twitter updates/facebook event pages/huge amounts of set-ups/multiple events(add LT or MT or Melee). House and transport people from OOS or OOC. MAKE SURE you stay active in your tournament thread and answer the question that appear. Oh, and DO NOT be afraid to ask other TOs or friends to help. Like I said before, all of this is pretty basic but if you do what I say you will have an AWESOME tournament and people WILL return. As for giving advice to fellow low tier mains: play to learn. Ask yourself every fight, "Why did i get hit by that? How can I avoid it or lessen the chances of me being in that situation?" Also, learn how to powershield better because you will see instant results once you get that down. No matter what though, don't give up  because you CAN get better and you CAN win!

Inui:  That's some pretty good advice.  I'd like to end this with a somewhat controversial topic you've always been heavily involved in, and that is the idea of banning Meta Knight.  MK surely has saturated the results for a while, but the argument is that he's merely being overused but isn't broken at all, and the repeated losses of top MKs to top mains of other characters backs this up.  It seems like he is indeed overused but it looks very unlikely that an actual ban will ever happen, or at least one backed by the BBR or the Brawl community overall.  What's your current opinion on MK?

Xyro: ROFL I knew this would come up at some point. I still think he needs to be banned. At the end of the day, he's impossible to counterpick by character(his WORST match-ups are EVEN) or by stage(no stage puts him at a real disadvantage). I feel that if a Smash game has a character that can't be CPed in anyway then he needs to go. I also feel than when a scene has to make rules that limit a character just to keep him in the game he needs to go. Think about it; PLANKING is an issue not because of GaW/Pit(because it's proven by frame data that a lot of characters can stop these two characters from doing it) but because of MK and Scrooging is not an issue because of Pit or CHARIZARD(lolololol) but it's because of MK. LOL though I can go on for decades, I'll stop here.

Inui: Well, you know I'm staunchly anti-ban, so we'll have to agree to disagree since we're both also pretty stubborn, lol.  Do you have any shoutouts for some people before we wrap this up?

Xyro: Yea I do. I wanna give a shoutout to YOU because you really didn't have to interview me but you chose to. It really means a lot to me so THANK YOU. I also wanna give a shoutout to any and all low tier mains out there for sticking it out and representing low tiers no matter what. And finally I wanna give a shoutout to everybody in Houston, TX (Gnes/Razer/Trela/Smoom/Illmatic/Jerm/P4/etc.) because even though we argue A LOT, they are all really cool guys and they make Houston the fun/exciting place it is today.

Inui: I definitely enjoy the Texas scene and look forward to going there again.  Thanks for the time, since this interview did take a quite a bit of time since we both had a lot to say.  Good luck with WHOBO 3, your own matches, and your life with your new family.  It's not common to have married Smashers with kids and everything in the community.  Set a good example for the youngsters!

Xyro: LOL Thank you for that! I hope all goes well with WHOBO 3 too and it better or else I'm gonna look like a fool

Inui: You'll be fine.  =]

*Pound* V has come and gone, and it was a great weekend and tournament that I’m glad I was able to be a part of. For those of you who haven’t been keeping up to date on what went down this weekend, or are just curious to know what the results were for this tournament, than I’m here to fill you in on everything you need to know about *Pound* V!

The tourney kicked off on Saturday morning a little later than planned, but fortunately we had a ton of set ups for Brawl and Melee, and with pools already made out the matches started. Pools ran pretty fast and organized, people also had tons of set ups to get friendlies and money matches in throughout the whole weekend which was nice as well. We had to leave a little sooner than expected on Monday evening, but there was still plenty of time for all of the events to run smoothly, including an amateur bracket for those who didn’t make it out of pools. Sadly, there was no regional crew battle to my knowledge, which is something I was looking forward to seeing, but that wasn’t enough to take away from how awesome the tourney was regardless.

For those who want to know what the outcomes of the tourneys were, check out the full results from both the Brawl and Melee events here:

Brawl Singles Results:

1: Ally ($1024) 
2: Anti ($454)
3: Seibrik ($340)
4: ESAM ($180)
5: ADHD ($90)
5: UltimateRazer ($90)
7: Gnes ($44)
7: Fatal ($44)
9: Mew2King
9: NickRiddle
9: Lie
9: Atomsk

Continued Results

Melee Singles:

1: Dr. PP
2: Armada
3: HBox
4: Axe
5: Mew2king
5: Hax
7: Cactaur
7: Vanz
9: Cyrain
9: Shroomed
9: Amsah
9: Remen

Continued Results

This was definitely the most fun/hype tournament I’ve attended so far, even more so than the MLG events and that makes me feel good about the Smash community being able to run great and successful events on their own like this. To see all the great matches and moments you might have missed this weekend, here’s a link to the video thread containing a ton of matches from this weekend:

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?p=12229608

Or you can check out VGBootCamp’s youtube channel for the latest videos from the tourney that are still being uploaded now:

http://www.youtube.com/user/VideoGameBootCamp

Congrats to all of the winners from this weekend, thanks to all of the hosts and people who made this event possible, and a shout out to everyone I got to spend time and have fun with this weekend. Events like these are what the smash community is really about that brings us all together not just to play a video game, but to spend time with all of the great people we’ve had a chance to meet through this game and websites like AiB and SmashBoards. I look forward to more great events like *Pound* V in the future, and hope to see anyone who’s reading this article right now at a tourney sometime soon.

Sumer: Hey AllisBrawl, I’m joined today by the one and only Plank! For those who don’t know, Plank will be hosting a tourney on the East Coast this weekend a few of you might have heard about, *Pound* V, and it’s looking to be not only one of the best tourneys of this year but one of the best tourneys of all time. I’d like to start off by asking what got you interested in hosting tournaments in the smash community, and where the idea for *Pound* originated from?


Plank: Hey, I actually got interested in hosting tournaments because my friend Travis had hosted the original *Pound*. It was the very first tournament I ever went to, and where I first decided I really wanted to play the game. So when he wasn't making any more *Pound* tournaments I asked if it was okay if I ran with the series, and he said it was cool.  A lot of people don't know Travis (Chinesah) actually ran the first one.


Sumer: Oh, cool. I had no idea until just now. lol Did you ever think *Pound* would grow into what it is today after you took it over?


Plank: No definitely not, when I hosted the second *Pound* I ended up getting MLG sponsorship which really sent it through the roof in attendance, and I guess with it just being fun and running well and hype they continued to grow.


Sumer: It hasn't seemed to disappoint anyone to this day, from my knowledge. The venue looks simply amazing this time around, and there’s so much to do in D.C. or even just in the hotel at night when tournament events aren’t happening. Can you talk a little bit about the venue, why you choose it, and how well you think it’ll help the tourney run smoothly and efficiently?


Plank: Sure, the venue is definitely the most incredible thing about the tournament.  Last year I had a huge problem with organizing transportation because the venue was an hour away from any airport.  It was such a stress to manage everyone rides from the airport to the venue and back, so this year I really wanted a venue very close to an airport. I found this venue which is .3 miles from the airport and an official hotel of DCA.  It has the flight arrival/departure information in the hotel itself along with the ability to print out boarding passes at the hotel and a free shuttle to the airport. It also has a free shuttle to the dc metro which gives perfect cheap access to anywhere in DC which has tons of stuff to offer. Along with the venue being 24 hours for people to play in and over 20,000 sq. feet, I really thought it was the full package.


Sumer: I'm definitely planning to take advantage of that while I'm there. lol


Plank: Good :-) I hope a lot of people do.


Sumer: *Pound* started off as a Melee tournament series back in 06’ and hasn’t disappointed Melee fans since with a record breaking attendance of 347 Melee entrants at *Pound* IV. This is partly due to the fact that the *Pound* series has grown so popular that each tourney is now attracting international attendance as well. For those who haven’t been keeping up on smashboards, the international players have arrived and are ready to represent their countries. How do you think the international players are going to stack up this time around against the US players? Do you think we’ll have even more upsets this time around, or have the US players been preparing themselves for revenge on the International players?


Plank: I think that the international players are going to do even better this time.  I really think that they have more drive than we do; after all they are the ones travelling to us to prove themselves.  I think that we will have a lot of upsets this year, the way Melee is progressing it really seems like it is more anyone’s game than it ever has in the past.  There have been 4 *Pound* tournaments for Melee and only 2 different winners, I'm very excited to see if the final one will be taken by an international player, or if perhaps we will only have 2 unique winners for Pound Melee ever.


Sumer: I fully agree with you on the international players have more of a drive, and think it'd be interesting if one of them took the title this time around as well. As far as Brawl goes, what kind of upsetting are you hoping to see happen at this tournament and what players do you think are going to surprise us? You’ve even entered this tourney, so how far do you think you’ll get given the fact that you’re probably pretty rusty from not playing in a while?


Plank: I really hope to see some sort of low tiers do some damage at the tournament.  I enjoy seeing a player get hype for wrecking groups of top MK players.  I just hope we can have some fun upsets; hopefully my boy Coney can rape some OOS players.  He's mad good.  As far as I go I think I’ll probably make it into brackets but get raped there or something.  I am rusty but I am also Metaknight with a B button and a brain, I'll be fine enough to get out of pools but I don't think I’ll beat anyone beyond that.  I’ll surely try though! lol


Sumer: You got this! I kind of want to see Coney vs. M2K again. I like the inclusion of Amateur Buy-In tournaments and other side events to keep players who don’t have a chance to make it into the main bracket of the game they enter entertained. How are you planning to run these smoothly while still giving your full attention to the main tournaments going on?


Plank: The amateur buy-in tournaments are going to be more self-run.  I'm going to make the bracket and draw it out manually and have someone specific run the event in a specific area of the venue.  I've also got projectors and such to communicate schedules at the venue of when we will be doing specific events since the event is 24 hours.  A lot of these events may have to occur at odd times late at night or something, but we will make it work.


Sumer: Sounds like things should work out with so much room and time to work with.


Plank: Yeah, the 24 hour venue gave me confidence to implement the amateur buy-in idea that I’ve wanted to do for a while but was afraid to.


Sumer: I really like the idea and look forward to seeing how it plays out. lol This is going to be the 5th and final *Pound* tournament in the series. Do you have plans to continue hosting more tournament in the smash community after this, perhaps start up a new tournament series, or step back and let others follow in your hosting footsteps while you move back into simply attending tourneys or maybe something else?


Plank: I'm most likely going to be leaving the smash scene as a whole.  I have been playing for about 5 years and spent a lot of time and money on the game,  I have a full time job and a girlfriend as well as trying to go back to school, I just don't have the time. Really probably mostly though Starcraft 2.lol To be honest.


Sumer: Can you give some advice to people who are planning or want to start hosting tournaments in their area as to how to get their tournaments as successful as yours, or at least some pointers for beginners for common mistakes to watch out for that maybe you even made yourself when starting out?


Plank:  Well like I said my very first tournament got sponsored by MLG, I really got lucky.  I never had to work at gaining a crowd; I’ve only had to work on maintaining and increasing my crowd.  I don't think I would have been successful at all if I wasn't given that by MLG.


Sumer: It’s fortunate that you were given that opportunity to create such a successful event and bring so many people from not only around the nation, but from around the world together to participate in the enjoyment of a game we all love to play.


Plank: As far as mistakes it's hard to say.  STAY ORGANIZED!!!  It is so important to be organized.  It's easy to just become swamped with taking money for registrations, pool sheets everywhere to record, people calling your phone, it gets tough.  It's very important to be organized so that you can even begin to balance these things.


Sumer: I’d like to finish off with any shout outs you might have for people who’ve helped you get as far as you have today or just anyone, and some hype for what everyone who’s not going to be able to make it to *POUND* V is going to be missing out on this weekend.


Plank: I would like to thank Team Arlington for being amazing and we are going to have an amazing farewell in Arlington this weekend! We are going to try and get updates out to people who couldn’t make it but you will have to be here to believe how hype its going to be.  IT'S ANYONES GAME!!!!!!


Sumer: AW YEAH! Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with your busy schedule, and I’m looking forward to meeting you and having an amazing weekend with everyone at *Pound* V!


Plank: Great and I'm looking forward to seeing all the familiar faces who continue to come back and support Smash and hopefully convincing some new people to do the same :-)

If you've participated in any sort of competition and tried to refine yourself as a competitor, odds are you've at least come across the idea of trying to "fake out" your opponent, making them think you'll do one thing when you do another.

Continue reading Mental Bottlenecks

Pound is a tournament series which was started back in January of 2006 and was Melee only. A few tournaments later and hundreds and hundreds more players, we're now at *POUND* V which is looking to be the best *POUND* in the history of the series.

When is *POUND* V?

*POUND* V is going to be held THIS WEEKEND. Here is the current tentative schedule for the smash events that will be held there:

Saturday::

11:00 Melee teams Pools r1
11:00 Brawl teams Pools r1

2:00 Melee Singles Pools r1
2:00 Brawl Singles Pools r1

5:00 Melee teams pools r2
5:00 Brawl teams pools r2

8:00 Melee Singles pools r2
8:00 Brawl Singles pools r2

Sunday:

11:00 Melee Teams Bracket
11:00 Brawl Teams Bracket

4:00 Melee Singles pools r3
4:00 Brawl Singles pools r3

6:00 Melee Singles Bracket
6:00 Brawl Singles Bracket

Monday:

11:00 AM Melee Singles Finale
11:00 AM Brawl Singles Finale

Where is *POUND* V going to be held?

*POUND* V is going to be held in Arlington, Virginia at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City hotel. This venue is going to be almost TWICE as large as the *POUND* IV venue measuring in at 23,000 square feet. The venue is also a 10 minute metro ride away from Washinton D.C., so if you've never been to our capital city and want to do some tourism on your off time from the tourney then this will be the perfect chance!

Hyatt:

D.C.:

Along with the standard Brawl and Melee singles and doubles tourneys being held, you will also have a ton of other entertaining events you'll be able to watch or participate in. *POUND* V will have multiple set ups with the recently released Project M demo available for play, so if you haven't had a chance to test that out yet, this is a perfect time to give it a try. There will also be Amateur Buy-In Tourneys starting up after each round of pools, so if you do bad in your pools match or don't make it into the next round, no worries! You still get a chance to play in a tourney and make some money with people more near your skill level. There will also be regional crew battles held for your enjoyment and so you can cheer on your region against the other ones.

The tourney is this weekend, so registration is probably closed, right?

Wrong! Plank has stated that since he wants this *POUND* to be the best it can be, he has extended registration for a 2nd time. There WILL be at the door registration, the only downside to this is that you'll have to be seeded into a pool at the spot, so there won't be enough time to take into consideration what the best pool to put you in would be, but it's still better than not being able to enter at all.

I still need a little more convincing. Why should I go to *POUND* V?

This is going to be the last, biggest, and best *POUND* tourney to date! If you've never been to a national size tournament before then this is a great opportunity to finally make it out to one. You get to meet all of the other players from around the country as well as all of the international players coming in just for this tournament. This is definitely a tournament you don't want to miss! Also, I'll be at *POUND* V, so I would like to meet as many AiB people here as I can. Hope to see all of you there! ^^

Finally, here's the smashboards thread with all the information you need to know for this tourney:

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=278586

And here's the *POUND* 5 trailer for a little more hype if that wasn't enough:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARtMQQOwbCg

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Welcome back to another edition of "Who's That User?", AiBers! Unlike the last edition, I've got something simple planned for all of you. That's right, you can ease back in your chairs and chillax. (If your chairs aren't capable of that, though, then don't risk an epic fail by falling!) But speaking of last time, let's see what went down before we start.

Last edition's results: Who was that user? *dramatic pause* It's Raffi-X! He joined the site on August 6, 2008, mains R.O.B. in SSBB/Kirby in SSBM, and had 26 medals (and now it's 27 from a recent tournament.) Supernitro and Blue Yoshi were the veteran winners, and RedRyukinRose and brawlveteran1 were the newbies. This was probably my toughest challenge yet, as I got way more wrong answers than right. Oh well...as I said, #20 is a breath of relief. Congrats to all the winners, and if you wish to see the results of the contest the day after, check this group out!

Rules:
1. I will give you all an interesting fact about a particular user. If you are the user I am describing, please keep quiet about it and do not reveal yourself. Failure to comply will result in the loss of your WTU Featured User badge.
2. In addition to a fact, clues will be given to help you search the myriad users of AiB for the right one. Don’t stop until you are absolutely sure you have the right user and he or she matches the clues given, because you only get one shot at this.
3. To make sure you are taking the time to check your guess, I will give you a few questions to answer about this user. Every answer will be found somewhere on his or her profile (About Me, blogs, videos, etc.) If one answer is incorrect, then your whole guess will be counted wrong, so make sure you are absolutely certain of what you typed. (P.S. If you can't find the answers or have to PM the person you're looking at for an answer, you're doing it wrong.)
4. When you are ready to give the name and answers, do not post as a comment. You must send a private message, or your submission will be void. Also, don’t give me a link to his or her profile unless you have the name and the answers to the questions to go with it. Putting just a link in your message will count as an incomplete (and therefore wrong) answer.
5. Everyone has until midnight tonight (PST) to message me. Any answer sent in after that will not be counted.
6. The first five that send the correct username get the WTU Winner badge! Keep in mind, however, that some veterans may come back to compete. Work fast, but don’t give up!

Time to get this show on the road. Do it up, everyone!

This user is a wildlife fanatic. ______ loves everything nature so much that ______ decided to join a local foundation to protect Mother Nature's babies. But in addition to breeding and sheltering animals with the team ______assists, this user has taken care of different critters by ______self. ______ has had ten cats, three dogs, eight spiders, twelve snakes, three scorpions, one bird, one rat, and two hamsters in ______ lifetime. (Three cats is bad enough for my mom, but a whole array like this would drive her nuts!) On a final note, this user has lived by the forest ______ entire life, and doesn't plan to change that or ______ view on the wildlife. So someone better call Dr. Doolittle, because this user has arrived to take his place!

In addition to the fact above, this user...
-is in the group I only use a specific color of my character.
-has a "k" in the username, name, or location.
-joined in Winter 2009.
-mains a C tier character, according to the Official BBR Tier List v5.

And the questions you need to answer are as follows:
1. When exactly did the user join the site?
2. Who does this user main in Brawl?
3. Who does this user main in Mario Kart Wii?
4. What activities does this user enjoy? (Activities =/= Games)

So tell me…WHO’S THAT USER?! Good luck to all, use your time wisely, and pay attention to the clues/questions! >;D

By the way, if you want to try to be featured in an article of “Who’s That User?”, just send me a PM with a cool, unique thing about yourself that possibly no one knows about you. However, just make sure this thing can’t be found anywhere on your profile (About Me, videos, blogs, tournaments, etc.) There’s no guarantee that you’ll be chosen, but if the random name picker I’ll use selects your name, you shall receive the WTU Featured User badge (as long as you don’t say anything to the other users)! So what are you waiting for? Send in for play, and maybe get featured one day! ^^ (Note: those that already sent in something do not need to resend.)

Hey AiB! How has everyone been doing? As most of have you probably gathered by now, Trish and I are collaborating on the AiB ladder updates for this season. This is my second article for you guys, and I hope it’s an improvement from my first. Thank you everyone for being patient and supportive as I get adjusted more to the Content Team. I would also like to thank Diska for helping me with the doubles ladder rankings, and making sure I had their teams’ mains and rankings in check =)

Now that we got that out of the way, there is one more point I would like to address that I didn’t on my first update. If you have any replays of your best ladder matches and you’d like to share it and have it featured on here for the ladder updates, feel free to send them to me or Trish via PMs. Depending on how much we get, we will post a max of 2 videos to post for the next ladder update.

Side-note: These top rankings have been taken on 5:00 am on Saturday [02/12/11]. 


Current Rankings


Singles:


[01] | [01] : ADHD (152 - 13) → Diddy Kong / King Dedede
[02] | [02] : Atomsk (30 - 3) → King Dedede
[03] | [04] : lorD timeouT (49 - 9) → Peach
[04] | [03] : Raffi-X (60 - 26) → R.O.B.
[05] | [05] : Zebra (89 - 19) → Wario
[06] | [06] : ANTi (40 - 12) → Meta Knight / Marth / Sheik
[07] | [07] : Jules (93 - 25) → Meta Knight / Olimar
[08] | [14] : Mcpeepants (37 - 6) → Wolf
[09] | [18] : Zero Heart (109 - 17) → Zero Suit Samus
[10] | [NR] : Koolaid (50 - 4) → Meta Knight / Snake
[11] | [09] : -DracoBlaze- (41 - 12) → Meta Knight / Snake / King Dedede
[12] | [11] : burntsocks (49 - 4) → Pit / Snake / Yoshi
[13] | [28] : Anuar (48 - 7) → Olimar / Meta Knight / Snake
[14] | [NR] : Ramona Flowers (25 - 2) → Meta Knight / Snake/ King Dedede
[15] | [30] : Aegis Angel Admiral Pit (64 - 22) → Pit
[16] | [29] : Sinnyboo342 (66 - 10) → Meta Knight / Ice Climbers
[17] | [NR] : ChinaLee (67 - 17) → Zero Suit Samus / Meta Knight / Ice Climbers
[18] | [11] : Waft (38 - 11) → Wario
[19] | [13] : So Fatal (17 - 1) → Snake
[20] | [10] : M to the Ekos (41 - 25) → Lucas
[21] | [20] : Alphicans (52 - 30) → Mr. Game & Watch
[22] | [NR] : judge (61 - 12) → Meta Knight / Snake / Donkey Kong / Kirby / Pikachu
[23] | [NR] : Dnyce (44 - 8) → Olimar
[24] | [15] : Super Saiyajin (34 - 5) → Meta Knight
[25] | [25] : YoshQ (57 - 23) → Luigi / Meta Knight
[26] | [19] : Adam Gibson (41 - 14) → Snake
[27] | [NR] : raytay824 (43 - 8) → Marth
[28] | [NR] : Kimchi (23 - 7) → Ike
[29] | [22] : Kain (35 - 20) → Wolf
[30] | [27] : SlayerZ (21 - 3) → Peach
[31] | [NR] : MintyFlesh (10 - 0) → Meta Knight / Marth
[32] | [NR] : Luckay4Lyphe(99 - 31) → Pikachu / Pit


Doubles:


[01] | [NR] : DLK [M to the Ekos / FOW] (22 - 1) → Lucas / Ness
[02] | [01] : Flame’s Team (We go ham in the mother ****ing dubs) [Flame / Zakalicious] (31 - 3) → Meta Knight / Meta Knight
[03] | [06] : we throw our controllers when we lose [Solid Soul / Jules] (11 - 1) → Snake / Meta Knight
[04] | [04] : Muramasa baby! [Amaterasu Okami / TearxXWolf] (19 - 2) → Snake / Zero Suit Samus
[05] | [02] : BEND OVER BECAUSE WE ARE GOING TO **** YOU IN THE *** [Adam Gibson / Bizkit] (22 - 7) → Snake / Snake
[06] | [03] : Team Red [SuperMarioMC / SkOaRaAn] (18 - 8) → Mr. Game & Watch / Marth
[07] | [14] : Chinchilla Bros [megafox112 / DatWavyBoyDev] (16 - 6) → Fox / R.O.B.
[08] | [05] : We both lost to Wolf [Atomsk / MJG] (3 - 0) → Random / Toon Link?
[09] | [16] : -WiFi GoDs- [-ZoDi- / Mcpeepants] (11 - 8) → Meta Knight / Wolf / Random?
[10] | [NR] : Team We Don't Lose To Lucas [Catastrophe / Eden] (6 - 1) → Snake / Marth
[11] | [NR] : HATE US [Souseiki / ThuG85] (6 - 1) → Meta Knight / Mr. Game And Watch
[12] | [NR] : Debom and Flame [Sinnyboo242 / Pitzer] (6 - 1) → Meta Knight / Pit?
[13] | [NR] : Fiendnation [Bo X7 / 7FO] (11 - 9) → Mario? / Wario
[14] | [15] : The Uno of Novaa [Uno_Gelp_Beast / SupaN0vaa] (7 - 2) → ? / ?
[15] | [07] : we r gud [Super Saiyajin / lorD timeouT] (3 - 0) → Meta Knight / Peach
[16] | [08] : Sunshine Snuggle Brigade~ [L_Cancel / Azure-Kenny] (3 - 0) → Olimar / Meta Knight


Notes


Singles:

• ADHD is still in the lead with a respectable 152 wins. He is also the only one consistently using Diddy who’s currently ranked.
• Raffi-X stays high in the rankings being the only R.O.B and Alphicans as Mr. Game and Watch.  Going further down the tier list
• Kimchi joins in with his Ike, and M to the Ekos continues displaying his Lucas. Good job guys!
• Mcpeepants and Kain keep stepping it up with Wolf.
• burntsocks (with an additional Yoshi and Snake), Aegis Angel Admiral Pit (all Pit), and Luckay4Lyphe (and Pikachu)  bring Pit into the light. Aegis Angel Admiral Pit has also taken an impressive leap half-way across the ladder rankings since the last ladder update. Nice work, Pits.
• Zebra and Waft continue with their Wario, while lordDtimeouT and SlayerZ keep representing their Peach.
• The following players were not ranked in the last update but join in for this one: Koolaid, Ramona Flowers, ChinaLee, judge, Dnyce, raytay824, Kimchi, Mintyflesh, and Luckay4Lyphe.  

Doubles:

• M to the Ekos and FOW lead the rankings with their amazing Lucas and Ness team.
• Teams ( We both lost to Wolf, we r gud, Sunshine Snuggle Brigade~) currently have an undefeated streak! How far will they be able to maintain that streak?
• Double, double, toil and trouble! Flame and Zakalicious join in double Meta Knight while Adam Gibson and Bizkit go double Snake.
• Muramasa Baby! has been the only team who kept the same position since the last ladder update.
• Top 5 teams with the most wins: Flame’s Team (31), DLK (22), Muramasa Baby! (19), Team Red (18), and Chinchilla Bros (16).  

Remember, the ladder ends on March 31st.. There’s still plenty of time to catch up on your score if you’re behind on decay, and to join the ladder if you haven’t already. Once again, congratulations to everyone who participated in the ladder. Keep working hard guys! ^_^

It's been a while since we had some new banners on AiB, and although we all like the Holiday themed ones, I think we would all agree that it's about that time to go back to some neutral banners for now. However, instead of just putting up the old ones we had, since it's a new year I think we should have new banners to go along with this. That being said, I'd like to announce the 2011 Banner Contest!

I welcome everyone to submit an entry for this new contest. Along with having your banner displayed on AiB for everyone to see, you also get to earn some cool badges just for entering. I look forward to seeing what AiB can put together for some awesome 2011 banners!

Specifics:

1. Banner must be 964x175 pixels.   
2. The banner should have a color scheme that compliments/fits with the skin it is for.
3. The banner does not have to be completely Smash related(doesn't have to have the Smash Symbol everywhere/all Melee/Brawl renders etc)
4. Preferably the logo should be displayed near the middle of the banner in a decent size. You may use this logo or create your own: [click here for logo] (original, not rendered )  
        [click here for logo v2]  (rendered and edited by Spellman)

Rules:

1. Each entrant may submit up to two entries(per skin). Once a banner is submitted, it cannot be changed.   
2. The banner MUST be new work. I'd like to see what the site can do.  
3. Entrants will be penalized accordingly for plagiarism, faked votes, and other inappropriate conduct.  
4. The process in which the winner is decided will depend on how many
entries we receive. It will most likely involve public voting as well
as admin panel selection.   
5. The admin panel reserves the right to rule that the banners will not be changed for this banner contest if
the quality of the banners are not up to our standards.   
6. Contest entry must be via private message to Zolga with
“2011 Banner Contest Entry - (Skin that it is for)” as the subject before Midnight of February 25th, 2011.

Resources:  

Planetrenders.net – Register for a free account for access to good quality Smash character renders and other resources!  

Brawl logo rendered: [click here for rendered Brawl logo]  

 

[Introduction to Project M]

        "Project M is a community-made mod of Brawl inspired by the gameplay of Super Smash Brothers Melee, designed to add rich and technical gameplay to a balanced cast of characters while additionally enhancing the speed of play. Project M employs new codes which seamlessly add in new, universal features to the entire cast to add technical variety to all characters." - Project M's Site
       
        To put it simply, Project M aims to please the competitive Super Smash Brothers player by offering gameplay similar to Melee with the additional content and characters that Brawl brings standard. While Brawl stands on it's own as a perfectly capable competitive fighter, there are those who prefer how Melee felt. Project M is directly made for these types of Smash Brothers players, but of course would love to reach out to Brawl players who want to spice it up and participate as well. Nobody says you can't play both games, afterall!
       
        In cooperation with All is Brawl, the Project M team hopes to interest you in Project M and the future of it by bringing you this handy guide to the basics. For more information about Project M and what it's trying to achieve, please visit the "About Section" on their site.
 

[The Demo Release]

        The Project M demo releases today at the Smash Mods homepage for Project M, complete with a 14 Character roster that covers fan favorites of the series as well as newcomers. Characters include Captain Falcon, Falco, Fox, Ganondorf, Mr. Game & Watch, Jigglypuff, Link, Lucas, Mario, Marth, Sheik, Snake, Sonic and Zelda. There will also be a selection of new stages, as well as throwback stages including but not limited to Dreamland 64, Fountain of Dreams, and Yoshi's Story.
 

 
        Project M does not require a modified Wii in order to play! There are methods detailed on the site above that can help those unwilling to use modifications in order to play, and they're very simple. Arm yourself with an SD card, your copy of Brawl and your Wii, and you can play without any system modifications.
 

[Frequently Asked Questions]

I actually do not play Smash competitively, will this still be fun for me?
Absolutely! Although the intentions for Project M are to be competitively attractive, there is something here to appeal to almost everyone. New stages to play on will be available, character changes allow for a fresh feel of play, and there may even be other additions in the future.
 
I didn't enjoy Melee, am I going to like Project M?
It all depends on what you disliked. Was it the limited cast? The items? The graphics? Reasons such as this mean that yes, there is potential that you may enjoy Project M. If you disliked the combos, the Melee style of air dodge, or even Wavedashing, there is a chance you may not be very interested. It is advisable that you at least try Project M once before passing judgment.
 
Is there a release date for the final version of Project M?
No, and there is no release window either. Setting artificial time limits to push the team could lead to complications such as overlooked issues, wasted potential, or worse: team disagreements.
 
Will Mewtwo/Roy/Pichu/Dr.Mario/Young Link be in this?
The Project M team has taken the stance that no Melee characters will return unless they can be seamlessly added without replacing any character, as well as have their own Character Select icon. Dantarion has been recently putting in a lot of effort into making advancements in this area.
 
Why are you making changes to Brawl-exclusive characters? Some of the Melee characters even appear to have changes!
The basic reason is to fit the Brawl characters within the Super Smash Brothers Melee physics and style of play. If everything was kept the same as in Brawl, they would likely not feel very good or fit in at all. Changing characters also brings a fresh feel to the gameplay and differentiates it from the original game. This helps eliminate the feeling of playing that same exact character with the same strategies; think of it as a new game. As for Melee characters, changes are made in theory that they're for the better and bring balance to the character.
 
Why are you reintroducing wavedashing/various techniques anyways?
Not just because the competitive scene embraced them, but also because in Wavedashing's defense, it was intentional! Other reasons include various new options to explore for character potential.
 
Stages from Brawl have been replaced, and this bugs me somewhat. What is the plan to remedy this?
The final version of Project M aims to have all of Brawl's stages alongside of the extras. For the demo, they'll be overlapping some of the existing ones, mainly the ones that are banned in competitive environments. Some Brawl stages may be edited to make them be more appealing to balanced play as well.
 
Why wouldn't you just play Melee if you enjoy its style of gameplay so much?
This is probably the most commonly asked question, and it should be simple to see. A quick list would be the new characters, balance brought to the cast, fancier graphics, more stages, and online play. These are all reasons why just playing Melee isn't too enticing of an option with Project M capable of existing. With all of these extras and possibilities, how can you ignore Project M?
 
Something is off...Are you sure this is like Melee?
While plenty of the values used for Project M are being ported directly from Melee itself, there are still a few odds and ends that need some work. Mainly, landing detection. In Brawl there is as of now, an unchangable method to detecting when you touch the ground. In Melee you landed with what was basically your shins, but in Brawl there's a set point that varies. It's very miniscule, but this is why it's a demo.
 
This will never get popular, why would I invest time in it?
With Pound 5 having a side tournament for Project M, various retired big name Melee players returning for Project M, and many Brawl players and tournament hosts already interested, it depends on a single factor to become popular: You. If the community can embrace Project M together at once, interest won't taper off and can get quite accepted and widely played. A game I like to relate this to is Counter-Strike. Counter-Strike was a very popular first person shooter modification of Half-Life in the late 1990s, and was created by a handful of fans. The mod got so incredibly popular that Valve ended up buying the modification off of their hands and the game went on to be one of the most successful and widely played first person shooter for many years to come. Of course, that outcome could never happen with Project M, but it goes to show that being derivative has potential to gain a following.
 
It's going to suffer the same fate as previous mods, team disagreements leading to disaster! Not to mention it's hard to manage tournament play with all of those versions flying around...Right?
Wrong, actually! Project M is being handled with utmost care by a team filled with talent, and everyone works together with their new ideas. Every beta change is readily available for the team to look at and test, allowing for increased testing and feedback leading to a more professional working environment. One of the things that bothered a lot of people with previous Brawl mods was that everyone had to make sure they were running the same version. Project M will be two releases, the demo and the final release. There won't be other releases, and it's assumed that releases after the final will only be major bugfixes and optional content additions if needed.
 

[Videos]

[Credits]

Hello again, users of the website known as All is Brawl! I'm back with another "Who's That User?", where your chances of winning this contest are literally one in a million. (Well, maybe not that much...but definitely in the thousands!) Let's get at it, shall we?

Last edition's results: Who was that lucky user? *dramatic pause* It's kirb92! He joined the site on Halloween 2009, mains Kirby (UGH!), and had the favorite cards Meta Crystal, Fountain of Dreams, Warp Star, and Love Machines. Jill BSAA, Nairo The Booty Warrior, and Supernitro were the new winners, and VickiIcarusChan and Blue Yoshi were the old. Congrats to the winners, and I hope you continue participating in the future! By the way, if you wish to see the results of the contest the day after, check this group out!

Rules:
1. I will give you all an interesting fact about a particular user. If you are the user I am describing, please keep quiet about it and do not reveal yourself. Failure to comply will result in the loss of your WTU Featured User badge.
2. In addition to a fact, clues will be given to help you search the myriad users of AiB for the right one. Don’t stop until you are absolutely sure you have the right user and he or she matches the clues given, because you only get one shot at this.
3. To make sure you are taking the time to check your guess, I will give you a few questions to answer about this user. Every answer will be found somewhere on his or her profile (About Me, blogs, videos, etc.) If one answer is incorrect, then your whole guess will be counted wrong, so make sure you are absolutely certain of what you typed. (P.S. If you can't find the answers or have to PM the person you're looking at for an answer, you're doing it wrong.)
4. When you are ready to give the name and answers, do not post as a comment. You must send a private message, or your submission will be void. Also, don’t give me a link to his or her profile unless you have the name and the answers to the questions to go with it. Putting just a link in your message will count as an incomplete (and therefore wrong) answer.
5. Everyone has until midnight tonight (PST) to message me. Any answer sent in after that will not be counted.
6. The first five that send the correct username get the WTU Winner badge! Keep in mind, however, that some veterans may come back to compete. Work fast, but don’t give up!

And now, I present to you the winning entry. Bring on the win!

We have another ocean fan here! (I swear, it's the only thing that multiple users have sent in to me!) That's right, this user love the deep blue and all its wonders. On an partially-related note, ______ father shares the fascination with oceans because of his childhood next to a beach. This user reads books about all of the animals that live there, and ______ favorite is the tiger shark. ______ also loves Spongebob Squarepants and Finding Nemo, and wishes ______ was ruler of the sea. (If that doesn't make this user a water fan______, I don't know what does!) So if you ever ride on a boat or plan to catch some gnarly waves, keep an eye out for this user. ______ could be swimming beneath you with ______ best friends...or subjects!

In addition to the fact above, this user...
-is in the group R.I.P Toonami.
-has an "f" somewhere in the username or location.
-joined the site in Summer 2008 (June, July, or August).
-mains a Middle Tier character, according to the Official BBR Tier List v5.
-was born in Summer 1993.
-has accounts on AiF, AiCoD, and AiC.

And the questions you need to answer are as follows:
1. When exactly did this user join the site?
2. Who is the main described above?
3. Who does this user main in the original Super Smash Bros.?
4. How many tournament medals does this user have?

So tell me…WHO’S THAT USER?! Good luck to all, use your time wisely, and pay attention to the clues/questions! >;D

By the way, if you want to try to be featured in an article of “Who’s That User?”, just send me a PM with a cool, unique thing about yourself that possibly no one knows about you. However, just make sure this thing can’t be found anywhere on your profile (About Me, videos, blogs, tournaments, etc.) There’s no guarantee that you’ll be chosen, but if the random name picker I’ll use selects your name, you shall receive the WTU Featured User badge (as long as you don’t say anything to the other users)! So what are you waiting for? Send in for play, and maybe get featured one day! ^^ (Note: those that already sent in something do not need to resend.)

Hey, everyone! How's it going? I hope everyone has been alright. Well anyway... you probably thought I was gone or something, but that is not the case. I was unable to work on the first ladder update due to my return from hiatus at the time, and I hope that is understandable. I thank Mocha for whipping up an update for me while I was gone! Also, if you probably didn't realize, she is currently co-working with me for this season's ladder updates. This is something I wanted to try out and to see how things go, so please bear with us as we switch off on each ladder update. Oh, I've also kept to my promise and racked up the most accurate results I can get by taking in today's rankings. We shall see what goes on here!

(By the way, I know this wasn't posted in the first ladder update of this season, but I'm still open to doing this. If you guys have replays of your best ladder matches you'd like to share and have it featured on here for the ladder updates, feel free to send me or Mocha any via PMs! Depending on how much we get, she and/or I will most likely pick a maximum of 2 videos for both singles and doubles to post up in the next update. After all, the ladder updates do need a little more spice on 'em, yes?)

Side-note: These top rankings have been taken at 5:45 am PST on [01/29/11].



Singles:

[01] | [01] : ADHD (111 - 9) → Diddy Kong / King Dedede
[02] | [NR] : Atomsk (30 - 2) → King Dedede
[03] | [NR] : Raffi-X (48 - 18) → R.O.B.
[04] | [03] : lorD timeouT (39 - 7) → Peach
[05] | [12] : Zebra (54 - 9) → Wario
[06] | [19] : ANTi (31 - 12) → Meta Knight / Marth / Sheik
[07] | [NR] : Jules (63 - 19) → Meta Knight / Olimar
[08] | [04] : Waft (38 - 11) → Wario
[09] | [22] : -DracoBlaze- (33 - 9) → Meta Knight / King Dedede / Snake
[10] | [NR] : M to the Ekos (33 - 16) → Lucas
[11] | [NR] : burntsocks (33 - 0) → Pit / Snake / Yoshi
[12] | [20] : judge (58 - 11) → Wario / Meta Knight
[13] | [06] : So Fatal (17 - 1) → Snake
[14] | [NR] : Mcpeepants (25 - 6) → Wolf
[15] | [14] : Super Saiyajin (33 - 5) → Meta Knight
[16] | [17] : Luckay4Lyphe (84 - 20) → Pit / Pikachu
[17] | [02] : MeroKnight (56 - 13) → Zero Suit Samus / Random?
[18] | [NR] : Zero Heart (59 - 5) → Zero Suit Samus
[19] | [09] : Adam Gibson (39 - 13) → Snake
[20] | [NR] : Alphicans (36 - 16) → Mr. Game & Watch
[21] | [05] : Illmatic. (59 - 16) → Peach
[22] | [NR] : Kain (32 - 19) → Wolf
[23] | [25] : psp (84 - 45) → Toon Link
[24] | [11] : chucknasty (25 - 2) → Meta Knight
[25] | [30] : YoshQ (49 - 22) → Luigi / Meta Knight
[26] | [31] : Kamii (16 - 2) → Lucario
[27] | [NR] : SlayerZ (19 - 2) → Peach
[28] | [NR] : Anuar (3 - 6) → Olimar / Meta Knight / Snake
[29] | [24] : Sinnyboo242 (47 - 8) → Meta Knight / Ice Climbers
[30] | [NR] : Aegis Angel Admiral Pit (43 - 22) → Pit
[31] | [08] : Stingers (43 - 9) → R.O.B.
[32] | [16] : dabuz the wifi olimar (16 - 3) → Olimar



Doubles:

[01] | [04] : Flame's team [Flame / Zakalicious] (20 - 0) → Meta Knight
[02] | [02] : BEND OVER CAUSE WE ARE GOING TO **** YOU IN THE *** [Adam Gibson / Bizkit] (22 - 7) → Snake
[03] | [NR] : Team Red [SuperMarioMC / SkOaRaAn] (14 - 5) → Mr. Game & Watch / Marth
[04] | [01] : Muramasa baby! [Amaterasu Okami / TearxXWolf] (18 - 2) → Snake / Zero Suit Samus
[05] | [03] : We both lost to Wolf [Atomsk / MJG] (3 - 0) → Random / Toon Link?
[06] | [16] : we throw our controllers when we lose [Solid Soul / pkmonftw] (6 - 1) → Snake / Meta Knight?
[07] | [06] : we r gud [Super Saiyajin / lorD timeouT] (3 - 0) → Meta Knight / Peach
[08] | [NR] : Sunshine Snuggle Brigade~ [L_Cancel / Azure-Kenny] (3 - 0) → Olimar / ?
[09] | [14] : The Ragnell Legends [-Royal Assassin ZenoIke- / Shai] (6 - 1) → Ike
[10] | [08] : Sexy Beasts [AfroTwist VanillaPie / GardoTwist ChocolatePie] (12 - 4) → Link / Mr. Game & Watch
[11] | [07] : Th[A] Chosen [2] [Eazyseph / -DracoBlaze-] (3 - 1) → Snake / Meta Knight
[12] | [05] : Dat wiimote DI [HyperKeeby / BlazerKirby] (4 - 0) → Kirby
[13] | [NR] : IMBALANCE [NSANE / LiKanG] (8 - 4) → Marth? / Snake?
[14] | [11] : Chinchilla Bros [megafox112 / DatWavyBoyDev] (9 - 5) → Fox / Random?
[15] | [NR] : The Uno of Novaa [Uno_Gelp_Beast / SupaN0vaa] (4 - 2) → ? / ?
[16] | [NR] : -WiFi GoDs- [-ZoDi- / Mcpeepants] (5 - 3) → Meta Knight / Wolf / Random?




Singles:

• ADHD is currently maintaining his position at the top of the ladder with a 92-point lead. How long will he be able to last?
• This time around, despite more top tier dominance, we're starting to see some Pits (from burntsocks, Luckay4Lyphe, and Aegis Angel Admiral Pit), Wolfs (from Mcpeepants and Kain), and a Mr. G&W (from Alphicans) added to the character variety from players un-ranked 2 weeks ago. Great job, you guys! And also, we have a Lucas added to the mix, as M to the Ekos is currently placing high with him. Very unique choice, I must say!
• The biggest drop in the ladder at this time is Stingers, dropping from 8th to 31st with his R.O.B. due to some inactivity. But not to worry though, Raffi-X is just getting started, making sure that at least one R.O.B. main can try to leave a mark on the ladder.
• Congrats to burntsocks for currently having an undefeated streak with his character variety of Pit, Snake, and Yoshi!
• These following players have been dropped from the last update's rankings: [07]Amaterasu Okami, [10]CtL, [13]pkmonftw, [15]joe ST, [18]×MÁR×, [21]BoxxahBrown, [23]LNIAD, [26]BengalsRZ, [27]State Alchemist Roy, [28]ven, [29]MythTrainerInfinity, [32]-Remix-.
• Top 6 Players with the Most Wins → Atomsk (111), Luckay4Lyphe and psp tie with 84 wins, Jules (63), Zero Heart (59), and judge (58).
• Top 5 Players with the Highest Win % → burntsocks (1.000), So Fatal (.944), Atomsk (.938), chucknasty (.926), and ADHD (.925).

Doubles:

• So, it seems 'Flame's team' and 'Murakasa baby!' have currently switched positions from the last update while 'BEND OVER CAUSE WE ARE GOING TO **** YOU IN THE *** ' are maintaining their 2nd place position. 'Flame's team' also remains undefeated with a streak of 20 wins. Nicely done!
• With a few starting to decay, we have 4 other undefeated teams for this update. Besides 'We both lost to Wolf', 'we r gud', and 'Dat wiimote DI', we now have 'Sunshine Snuggle Brigade~'.
• Speaking of 'Dat wiimote DI', if you probably didn't catch this, they are currently the only pure mod team on these rankings, representing a double Kirby team! If you try to take 'em on, you have the opportunity to earn a Double Danger badge!
• These following players have been dropped from the last update's rankings: [09]u mad y, [10]Wasta~Pray, [12]Green Team, [13]Meaty Beasties, and [15]> O^O.
• Top 5 Teams with the Most Wins → 'BEND OVER CAUSE WE ARE GOING TO **** YOU IN THE *** ' (22), 'Flame's team' (20), 'Muramasa baby!' (18), 'Team Red' (14), and 'Sexy Beasts' (12).

So, the ladder ends on March 31st, which leaves us to having almost exactly 2 months remaining before the playoffs! Not to worry, you guys have plenty of time to get the position you deserve before that happens. Try out the ladder if you haven't and have some fun! It's a great place to experiment with characters, practice, have fun and make new great friends. Remember that there is actually prize money to be won at the end of the ladder season if you make it very far! A lot of people have already started and gotten high up in the ranks with no problem at all. Perhaps one of you can do the same? In the meantime, work hard and keep your flame of competition lighting up! Congrats to the current top 32 players and 16 teams who made it to this first bi-weekly update. We wish you all the best of luck for anyone seeking to be at the top and making it to the playoffs! Until next time, see ya~ :]

Welcome back, tourney fans! I've got yet another guide to fun nationwide with a hot tournament coming soon to a venue near you. It is...

History of This Series

Nine whole tournaments...you don't see too many series as successful as that. It started off as "Road to Viridian City: Jersey City Monthlies", and was organized by the dynamic duo of Alex Strife and crismas. Players that attended varied with each tournament, but ranged from the 40s to 118 (RTVC 7). As soon as the eigth tournament was announced, "Road to" and "Jersey City Monthlies" were removed from the name (I guess they finally made it to Viridian City after seven tries!) crismas went south for the winter and left Alex to host VC8, which also happened to be his birthday party. What'll he think of next?

Not-So Distant Future

55 players plan to attend this tournament. Top players such as Rich Brown, Tearbear, DEHF, Tyrant, and Gnes signed up to go, so you should to if you wish to meet these and many more cool cats! Alex said he hopes that 128 players show up for pools, but we'll just have to see if that happens now won't we? Speaking of, for once he won't be able to attend due to work issues. Prince Maximillian will take his place, and he'll be joined by RJ, Keitaro, and ChiboSempai. VG Bootcamp may provide the food, and streams will be made for SSBB and SSF4 (see the bottom for details) with beastly commentary. What a glorious day it shall be!

Where, When, and How Much

VC9 will take place in the Hyatt Morristown Convention Center, which is located at 3 Speedwell Avenue, Morristown, NJ. 9:30-10:30 am is when registration starts, and 11 am is when the actual event begins. SSF4 doubles start at 3 pm, and singles start at 4 (these times might be a-changin', though, so be wary.) Single players pay $20 ($10 for venue and $10 for the event itself), teams pay $30 ($10 for venue and $20 for the event itself), and to reserve a room is $119 per night (but to do this, you must call 973-377-2424!) However, if you bring a full setup (TV, systems, controllers, etc.), entry is FREE! Well...for the first three players that do so; for all the rest, a discount will be given on your fees.

Zhe Games

As I said earlier, Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Street Fighter 4 will be on the menu for this venue. The rules are the pretty much the same as other tournaments, but for other perks check out the tournament's page. Now remember those streams I mentioned? Well, here's how it's going to go down. Both SSBB and SSF4 will have live streams with dmbrandon, Coney, Doom, and TKO. As Alex said, "if you cannot be here (which you should) DO not miss the stream!" Since this unfortunately applies to me, I'll take his word for it!

All in All

You can't go wrong with this series. After all, a certified host and crew, as well as excellent accommodations for the tournament and service, ensure that your tournament experience won't be an unpleasant one. (At least, it shouldn't be if you do this correctly!) I wish all of the competitors the best of luck, and until next time, stay classy All is Brawl!

P.S. To all that plan to attend, watch out for old men hyped up on coffee and wild Weedles!

P.P.S. Here is the stream for the tournament:  http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bionicstream

Alright, so as some of you may know, over a year and a half ago I started something called "Get Togethers" on All is Fighter. Essentially I was on MSN chatting with GoV on new ways that we could help AiF gain activity, and thinking of how AllisCrossing had K.K. Slider social events based on the night K.K. performs in AC: CF (Saturday), I got to thinking, "is there a way to import something like that onto a site like AiF? The answer I came up with was, yes.

So I said to GoV, what if we did something called "Get Togethers"? A social event that gives the community a chance to get together and discuss ways to improve the site, play some games, and just chat/have a good time.

Together we started to shape up the idea and started the AiF social Get Togethers (or just AiF Get Togethers). We started notifying all the people we could about the event in hopes for a good turnout, I got a hold of JV to tell him, and in the end it was a huge success that continued on for some time after.

Now I'm not going to go into details as to what's going on with the AiF Get Togethers these days, but I will say that Get Togethers are a great way to get the community together and make the site even better or more active than it already is (or at least have fun anyway).

So in brief I had been thinking of more ways I could help AiB, and well among a few other things, I finally came to this conclusion, and went to Enrish asking for his take on this, which was essentially, a yes.

Now then, onto the first AiB Get Together.

Well, being that Get Togethers obviously require organizational time and advertising time before the event actually happens, I figured since Valentine's Day is the next big holiday coming up, why not make the first one based off of that?

Anyway here is all the info on the All is Brawl V-Day Get Together!
 
Date: Friday, February 11th.
Where: Whichever chat wins the front page poll (votes will be counted only until 11:59 PM EST on February 1st.)
 
Social Chat Event Info:

Just like with the Get Togethers on AiF there is always the main chat event where we come together as a community have some convos, discuss ways to improve AiB, play some friendlies, or whatever else. Also being that this is a special social event, during the Get Together, users may also make trades while in the chatroom =)
 
Starting Times:

1:00 AM Netherlands
12:00 AM GMT
8:00 PM Atlantic
7:00 PM EST
6:00 PM CST
5:00 PM MST
4:00 PM PST

*If your timezone is not above please contact Kakashi Of The Sharingan.
 
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact one of the Hosts/Organizers:

~Kakashi Of The Sharingan
~Enrish
~Midnite
~Mangporeyawn
~Faketime
~Sumer

For more information, visit the Get Togethers group!

Happy Valentine's Day Everybody!!!

Every year in January Azn Lep hosts Socal's largest tournament, Winter Game Fest! This Saturday and Sunday will hold the sixth year for WGF and the third year for Brawl.  People from all over the west coast come down to UC San Diego for this two day event.


Continue reading Winter Game Fest VI Hype!